Bridgetown (Barbados): The T20 World Cup final was a case of so near yet so far for South Africa, who once again choked at the biggest stage of cricket’s showpiece. Captain Aiden Markram said to lose from a position of strength in the last five overs was ‘gut-wrenching.’ “It’s just gut-wrenching. Each player has been on a different individual journey to get to this first final. This group’s a great bunch of people who deserve really good things to go their way. I had a really good feeling about this competition before we came here and as the competition went on, that feeling got stronger and stronger. It’s pretty tough to deal with now and we’ll try to use it to fire us up for future events but for the time being, it just hurts a lot,” he said. Markram gave India due credit. “They (India) bowled really well at the back end, had very simple plans and executed them. From a run-a-ball it can go to 10 an over in the space of one over, so your gameplan as a batter changes. You’d be searching for boundaries and everything changes quickly. You’ve got to take your hats off to a team like India for lifting the trophy,” he said. However, “I’m still proud of our performance. Not just of today, but the competition as a whole, the build-up to get here. We’d like to think we’re one step closer and hopefully moving forward we can get that first win and it can be a snowball effect of quite a few to come,” he added. Markram was all praise for Heinrich Klaasen, whose quickfire 52 had the game in South Africa’s bag. “We’ve seen him do it many, many times around the world and to deliver it in a stage like this is a really special effort. When we reflect on the tournament, there’s going to be lots of things to be happy about and I’m sure that knock could have made him really tough,” he said. He also lauded the groundsmen for providing a sporting wicket. “I thought the wicket played really well, it stayed consistent throughout the game. Hats off to the groundsmen for preparing a wicket like that, it had something in it for the bowlers as well as batters — a good spectacle overall,” he said.
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